(Genesis 22:1-18)
Can you imagine? A father-to-be having to wait 25 years for his promised son to arrive, with each passing year casting compounding doubt on whether God would deliver? Then, the son is born, and the father-son bond is allowed to be firmly forged into and possibly well beyond the teenage years? Then suddenly, the loving God who gave him demands him back. And not just in any manner, mind you. Not by some humane means that would limit suffering, but in one of the most vicious manners still even to this day by which one ends the life of another: a violent stabbing with a knife! Can you imagine???
This account is really a good fit not only for the start of the season of Lent, with its emphasis on the ultimate perfect sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus, but also as the start of our seasonal series, Rethinking Religion. To anyone outside of Christianity, this is the sort of account that could so easily serve as justification for rejecting religion, particularly the Christian God and the shocking demand he makes of a father in these verses. What kind of a twisted, blood-thirsty God could ever not just condone – but go so far as to command – child sacrifice?
The window of understanding as to where God’s heart truly is in this encounter is revealed right away at the beginning. “Some time later God tested Abraham” (v.1). Before we explore the significance of testing, take note of Abraham’s response. After God called out to him, Abraham replied with “Here I am” (v.1). How different Abraham’s response was from the first time God called out to a man, Adam, after he sinned! There was no, “Here I am,” from Adam, but rather hiding and shame. At that time, the fallen sinner wanted nothing to do with a holy God.
What had changed? God’s gracious promise of deliverance through a Savior that would come had been passed along repeatedly to Abraham. His relationship with God was not one based on fear or terror or shame, which is why he stood ready to listen to what his good Lord had to say. He listened with ears that knew his good Lord’s gracious promises and good intentions for his life and his eternity. That confident faith in his good God might also explain why Abraham didn’t question or pushback on God’s gut-wrenching demand, but instead dutifully followed through with the wishes of his gracious Lord.
Now back to the matter of testing, which is how this whole account is introduced. If we are to know God’s heart, we have to revisit his purpose for testing. We must not confuse a test with a trap. Though they may even appear to look identical externally, their purpose is entirely different. The purpose of a trap is to catch someone in the wrong. It does not have the target’s best interest in mind, but rather stems from a mind already made up that a wrongdoer needs to be caught, exposed, and punished. A trap is not an attempt to gather more information in order to determine guilt or culpability; it is a setup to catch the guilty person in the act.
But a test is different. Really, ultimately, a test is for the benefit of the one taking or receiving it. As you look back on your education and consider all the quizzes and tests you spent countless hours studying for, they probably didn’t feel like they were for your benefit at the time, but they were. A test allows the taker to assess how well they are grasping the material. Some are better than others in achieving this purpose, but ultimately, the test shows you where you’re at.
When you are ready to get your driver’s license and get behind the wheel of the car, you don’t take a driver’s test for the instructor’s benefit, but for your own. If you don’t pass it the first time, the test reveals what you need to work on to become a capable driver. And while passing the test and getting your license provides all the other drivers on the road with peace of mind, the greatest benefit is for you to feel comfortable and confident behind the wheel. Tests are for your benefit.
So it was with God’s test of Abraham. The test wasn’t for God’s benefit, since nothing is hidden from him. God was not waffling in indecision about what he thought of Abraham. It wasn’t as if he just wasn’t sure what to make of him or somehow couldn’t get a good read on him. No, God’s omniscient eyes see the heart of every man and know exactly what is in each man’s heart.
But man, on the other hand, does not. Oh, we often think we do, but we could not be more wrong. The prophet Jeremiah captured that frustration when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus taught the same striking truth: “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” (Mark 7:21). So we if we are deceived by our own hearts (which, by the way, is why the advice to “follow your heart” is some of the worst advice you could ever give or receive), how can we ever hope to accurately discover anything dangerous or sinister dwelling inside our hearts? How can we ever determine if we are genuinely growing in grace or remaining stagnant in our faith? The answer is through testing, which is for our good.
We might wonder why Abraham needed to be tested. But the test itself often reveals the potential heart issue. When we look at what God was calling Abraham to do, it becomes quite clear to us. God knows the inclination of the human heart to worship people and places and possessions – created things – rather than the Creator who gives us those things. Therefore, he was well aware of the potential danger of Isaac, Abraham’s long-awaited gift of a son, becoming Abraham’s greatest treasure and number one priority.
Now to the ears of many, this makes God come across as an insecure deity who needs and feeds off of attention and significance – as if being primary importance in our lives is for his benefit. But God is not worried about himself. He is God regardless of what we think of him. Even if all refused to believe or trust in him, God would still be God. He doesn’t need our faith in him; but we do.
His desire to be number one in our hearts is for our sake, not his. Because he is well aware of another force at work against us, one not interested in using tests to bless us, but traps trip us up. Satan is constantly looking to spring his traps to distract us from what is most important in life: our salvation.
And there is absolutely no trap that Satan considers off-limits when it comes to his goal of seeing us forfeit our salvation. Sure, he will use sin, dressing it up and making it desirable and pleasing to us so that we become so attached to it that we either cannot escape getting tangled up in it or are so entrenched in it that we believe ourselves to be beyond being forgiven and saved.
But he is just as likely to trap us with good things – blessings from God, even, like family, children, jobs, belongings, etc. – so long as these good things fill our hearts so there is little room for God and his salvation to remain there. The evil one cares very little what it is in our heart that crowds out our love and devotion for God, as long as it serves to fracture our faith bit by bit until it is all but swept out of our hearts. Satan will delight in anything that takes root in our hearts, so long as it isn’t the grace and forgiveness of God through the gospel.
But while the devil doesn’t care about our hearts, God does. Immensely. Intensely. How much does he care?
Can you imagine? A father-to-be having to wait not 25 years, but thousands of years for his promised son to arrive? Then, the son is born and the father-son bond is forged, with the father witnessing for the first time ever in history what it looks like for someone to finally live the holy life he created mankind to live. And the Father can’t hide his delight, verbally expressing his pride multiple times during his Son’s life! Then, the loving Father-God, with the full awareness of what the future held, a full awareness of the bitter rejection his Son would face, a full awareness of the soul-crushing suffering he would endure, knew he had to turn away from him and abandon him? And not just in any manner, mind you! Not by some humane means that would limit suffering, but rather one of the most excruciating methods of death ever devised: crucifixion! Can you imagine???
That’s how much he cares. He cares enough to allow – and even send – trials that test us and test our hearts. Not to trap us. Not to trip us up in the faith. But to gauge where our hearts are at, so that when we are lacking in faith, we can first of all realize it. But then even more importantly, we can run to the God who can strengthen it, who can forge it through testing into something stronger than we could have ever imagined it to be. Through his faithful forgiveness, he can purify our hearts, rid them of impurities, clean house, and dwell in us unopposed. He carries out this work repeatedly when we recall our baptism, when we receive his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and when, after sweeping out the sin from our heart in confession, we hear the sweet music of absolution.
Can you imagine? You don’t have to. God graciously provided Abraham with a substitute sacrifice in the place of Isaac. To Abraham he provided a ram. To us he provided the Redeemer, his own Son. The Substitute who sustains and strengthens us to endure trials and tests and see them for what they are, God’s ongoing work of drawing us ever closer to him and making us more sure of our salvation in him.
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